Some thoughts on a word
Jul. 10th, 2004 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyburgFree-associate with me a moment.
The word of the day is: HARD.
As in, "Dude - your life is like, sucking a whole tube. What you're going through is HARD."
Uh.
Can we just quit using this word for that purpose?
It's hardly adequate.
It's lame. And lazy work.
*checks the dictionary*
Mmm. 11 entries.
1. Resistant to pressure; not readily penetrated.
2.
1. Physically toughened; rugged.
2. Mentally toughened; strong-minded.
3.
1. Requiring great effort or endurance: a hard assignment.
2. Performed with or marked by great diligence or energy: a project that required years of hard work.
3. Difficult to resolve, accomplish, or finish: That was a hard question.
4. Difficult to understand or impart: Physics was the hardest of my courses. Thermodynamics is a hard course to teach.
4.
1. Intense in force or degree: a hard blow.
2. Inclement: a long, hard winter.
5.
1. Stern or strict in nature or comportment: a hard taskmaster.
2. Resistant to persuasion or appeal; obdurate.
3. Making few concessions: drives a hard bargain.
6.
1. Difficult to endure: a hard life.
2. Oppressive or unjust in nature or effect: restrictions that were hard on welfare applicants.
3. Lacking compassion or sympathy; callous.
7.
1. Harsh or severe in effect or intention: said some hard things that I won't forget.
2. Bitter; resentful: No hard feelings, I hope.
8.
1. Causing damage or premature wear: Snow and ice are hard on a car's finish.
2. Bad; adverse: hard luck.
9. Proceeding or performing with force, vigor, or persistence; assiduous: a hard worker.
10.
1. Real and unassailable: hard evidence.
2. Definite; firm: a hard commitment.
3. Close; penetrating: We need to take a hard look at the situation.
4. Free from illusion or bias; practical: brought some hard common sense to the discussion.
5. Using or based on data that are readily quantified or verified: the hard sciences.
11.
1. Marked by sharp outline or definition; stark.
2. Lacking in delicacy, shading, or nuance.
12. Being a turn in a specific direction at an angle more acute than other possible routes.
13.
1. Metallic, as opposed to paper. Used of currency.
2. Backed by bullion rather than by credit. Used of currency.
3. High and stable. Used of prices.
14.
1. Durable; lasting: hard merchandise.
2. Written or printed rather than stored in electronic media: sent the information by hard mail.
15. Erect; tumid. Used of a penis.
16.
1. Having high alcoholic content; intoxicating: hard liquor.
2. Rendered alcoholic by fermentation; fermented: hard cider.
17. Containing dissolved salts that interfere with the lathering action of soap. Used of water.
18. Linguistics. Velar, as in c in cake or g in log, as opposed to palatal or soft.
19. Physics. Of relatively high energy; penetrating: hard x-rays.
20. High in gluten content: hard wheat.
21. Chemistry. Resistant to biodegradation: a hard detergent.
22. Physically addictive. Used of certain illegal drugs, such as heroin.
23. Resistant to blast, heat, or radiation. Used especially of nuclear weapons.
adv.
1. With strenuous effort; intently: worked hard all day; stared hard at the accused criminal.
2. With great force, vigor, or energy: pressed hard on the lever.
3. In such a way as to cause great damage or hardship: industrial cities hit hard by unemployment.
4. With great distress, grief, or bitterness: took the divorce hard.
5. Firmly; securely: held hard to the railing.
6. Toward or into a solid condition: concrete that sets hard within a day.
7. Near in space or time; close: The factory stands hard by the railroad tracks.
8. Nautical. Completely; fully: hard alee.
Idioms:
hard and fast
Defined, fixed, and invariable: hard and fast rules.
hard of hearing
1. Having a partial loss of hearing.
2. One who has a partial loss of hearing.
hard put
Undergoing great difficulty: Under the circumstances, he was hard put to explain himself.
hard up Informal
In need; poor.
[Middle English, from Old English heard. See kar- in Indo-European Roots.]
Synonyms: hard, difficult, arduous
These adjectives mean requiring great physical or mental effort to do, achieve, or master. Hard is the most general term: “You write with ease to show your breeding,/But easy writing's curst hard reading” (Richard Brinsley Sheridan). Difficult and hard are interchangeable in many instances. Difficult, however, is often preferable where the need for skill or ingenuity is implied: “All poetry is difficult to read,/The sense of it is, anyhow” (Robert Browning). Arduous applies to burdensome labor or sustained physical or spiritual effort: “knowledge at which [Isaac] Newton arrived through arduous and circuitous paths” (Thomas Macaulay).
Using the word "hard" implies that if you were better, if you worked at it - it wouldn't exist as a problem.
I swear, the things people comfort others by saying "they're hard" - are not hard.
Or difficult, the other preferred useage.
Try impossible. Or just admit it - there are no words adequate to the situation, and just be honest about it.
Hard.
BAH.
I hate hearing that word used that way.
To me, hard is:
These things are not hard. Exactly what they are is impossible to define - but try.
Because the same word used to define the state Wonder Bread gets into when misused just doesn't compute when it's used to define the state so many of my friends are this morning.
It's not hard. It's not, I tell you.
The word of the day is: HARD.
As in, "Dude - your life is like, sucking a whole tube. What you're going through is HARD."
Uh.
Can we just quit using this word for that purpose?
It's hardly adequate.
It's lame. And lazy work.
*checks the dictionary*
Mmm. 11 entries.
1. Resistant to pressure; not readily penetrated.
2.
1. Physically toughened; rugged.
2. Mentally toughened; strong-minded.
3.
1. Requiring great effort or endurance: a hard assignment.
2. Performed with or marked by great diligence or energy: a project that required years of hard work.
3. Difficult to resolve, accomplish, or finish: That was a hard question.
4. Difficult to understand or impart: Physics was the hardest of my courses. Thermodynamics is a hard course to teach.
4.
1. Intense in force or degree: a hard blow.
2. Inclement: a long, hard winter.
5.
1. Stern or strict in nature or comportment: a hard taskmaster.
2. Resistant to persuasion or appeal; obdurate.
3. Making few concessions: drives a hard bargain.
6.
1. Difficult to endure: a hard life.
2. Oppressive or unjust in nature or effect: restrictions that were hard on welfare applicants.
3. Lacking compassion or sympathy; callous.
7.
1. Harsh or severe in effect or intention: said some hard things that I won't forget.
2. Bitter; resentful: No hard feelings, I hope.
8.
1. Causing damage or premature wear: Snow and ice are hard on a car's finish.
2. Bad; adverse: hard luck.
9. Proceeding or performing with force, vigor, or persistence; assiduous: a hard worker.
10.
1. Real and unassailable: hard evidence.
2. Definite; firm: a hard commitment.
3. Close; penetrating: We need to take a hard look at the situation.
4. Free from illusion or bias; practical: brought some hard common sense to the discussion.
5. Using or based on data that are readily quantified or verified: the hard sciences.
11.
1. Marked by sharp outline or definition; stark.
2. Lacking in delicacy, shading, or nuance.
12. Being a turn in a specific direction at an angle more acute than other possible routes.
13.
1. Metallic, as opposed to paper. Used of currency.
2. Backed by bullion rather than by credit. Used of currency.
3. High and stable. Used of prices.
14.
1. Durable; lasting: hard merchandise.
2. Written or printed rather than stored in electronic media: sent the information by hard mail.
15. Erect; tumid. Used of a penis.
16.
1. Having high alcoholic content; intoxicating: hard liquor.
2. Rendered alcoholic by fermentation; fermented: hard cider.
17. Containing dissolved salts that interfere with the lathering action of soap. Used of water.
18. Linguistics. Velar, as in c in cake or g in log, as opposed to palatal or soft.
19. Physics. Of relatively high energy; penetrating: hard x-rays.
20. High in gluten content: hard wheat.
21. Chemistry. Resistant to biodegradation: a hard detergent.
22. Physically addictive. Used of certain illegal drugs, such as heroin.
23. Resistant to blast, heat, or radiation. Used especially of nuclear weapons.
adv.
1. With strenuous effort; intently: worked hard all day; stared hard at the accused criminal.
2. With great force, vigor, or energy: pressed hard on the lever.
3. In such a way as to cause great damage or hardship: industrial cities hit hard by unemployment.
4. With great distress, grief, or bitterness: took the divorce hard.
5. Firmly; securely: held hard to the railing.
6. Toward or into a solid condition: concrete that sets hard within a day.
7. Near in space or time; close: The factory stands hard by the railroad tracks.
8. Nautical. Completely; fully: hard alee.
Idioms:
hard and fast
Defined, fixed, and invariable: hard and fast rules.
hard of hearing
1. Having a partial loss of hearing.
2. One who has a partial loss of hearing.
hard put
Undergoing great difficulty: Under the circumstances, he was hard put to explain himself.
hard up Informal
In need; poor.
[Middle English, from Old English heard. See kar- in Indo-European Roots.]
Synonyms: hard, difficult, arduous
These adjectives mean requiring great physical or mental effort to do, achieve, or master. Hard is the most general term: “You write with ease to show your breeding,/But easy writing's curst hard reading” (Richard Brinsley Sheridan). Difficult and hard are interchangeable in many instances. Difficult, however, is often preferable where the need for skill or ingenuity is implied: “All poetry is difficult to read,/The sense of it is, anyhow” (Robert Browning). Arduous applies to burdensome labor or sustained physical or spiritual effort: “knowledge at which [Isaac] Newton arrived through arduous and circuitous paths” (Thomas Macaulay).
Using the word "hard" implies that if you were better, if you worked at it - it wouldn't exist as a problem.
I swear, the things people comfort others by saying "they're hard" - are not hard.
Or difficult, the other preferred useage.
Try impossible. Or just admit it - there are no words adequate to the situation, and just be honest about it.
Hard.
BAH.
I hate hearing that word used that way.
To me, hard is:
- Cornbread left out overnight without covering it. Emphasis when it's rice left in the dishes.
- DDR when you've never tried it, emphasis when some jerk sets it to "PSYCHO" mode.
- Database programming without a reference manual.
- Admitting I have too many damn books. Emphasis when I try to figure out what to do with them.
- Ending a relationship.
- Losing a loved one.
- Accepting something awful happened on your watch, and you could do nothing to prevent it. Emphasis when you have to clean up afterward and you can't.
- Watching a life come to an end in a never-ending spiral downwards. Emphasis when it's someone you love more than you own life.
But hard is not:
These things are not hard. Exactly what they are is impossible to define - but try.
Because the same word used to define the state Wonder Bread gets into when misused just doesn't compute when it's used to define the state so many of my friends are this morning.
It's not hard. It's not, I tell you.
